Moroccan Carrot Soup for the Overstuffed Soul

How many of you may have over indulged over the Thanksgiving weekend. Good for you!

But you may be feeling the need to dial it down. Just a notch. On the belt.

Vegetables are a great vehicle for this kind of dialing it down. Just ask them. Well, maybe don’t. They are very modest…the strong silent type.

I’ve been feeling that soups are a fantastic way to accomplish this strong and silent diet dial down. They allow me to incorporate vegetables into my diet in a sneaky-stay-low-so-as-not-to-be-detected way. I like that.

This Moroccan Carrot Soup is one I pulled from my binder archive of recipes. The ones I forget I have, or ever was interested in cooking in the first place. I found it again one day by happy accident. It’s originally from the April 2010 issue Bon Appetit magazine.

The carrots puree into a creamy dream, and the cumin and allspice give it a gentle Moroccan flavor that is sweet and savory. I used Chobani non-fat plain yogurt for the dollop on top. It gives the whole bowl an added richness and smoothness. Make this, freeze some of it for later. Eat it all week. Until Christmas. Or until I post the next soup recipe…

What You Need:

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter

1 cup chopped white onion

1 pound large carrots, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch dice (about 22/3 cups)

2 1/2 cups low-salt chicken broth

1 1/2 teaspoons cumin seeds or 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 cup plain yogurt, stirred to loosen

What You Do:

Melt butter in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and sauté for 2 minutes.

Mix in the carrots.

Add broth; bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until carrots are very tender, about 20 minutes.

At this point you can toast your real cumin seeds. I did not do any such thing. I used ground cumin. Please know, I have nothing against toasting real cumin seeds. I even believe Bon Appetit’s assertion that it’s surprisingly easy to do. I just didn’t feel like buying them when I had ground cumin in the pantry.

HOWEVER, you should know that you will get better flavor from real cumin seeds. BUT you can also warm ground cumin in a pan with a little olive oil and it will release a bit more of the flavor that’s been locked up in that plastic container at the back of your spice rack since heavens only knows when.

Stir cumin seeds in small skillet over medium-high heat until fragrant, 4 to 5 minutes; cool. Finely grind in spice mill.

Remove soup from heat. Puree in batches in blender until smooth. Return to same pan. Whisk in honey, lemon juice, and allspice. Season with salt and pepper.

Ladle soup into bowls. Drizzle yogurt over; sprinkle generously with cumin.